Wednesday, June 27, 2018

I found out Saturday that one of the most influential
educators in my life had passed away from cancer on Friday morning. Mr. Arthur Matchette
was a staple at my alma mater, Amon Carter-Riverside High School, having taught
there for over 30 years—his entire career— as well as being an alumnus. I’ve
been seeing many tributes to him on Facebook, some of them pointing out his
quirks (let’s just say he had a slight addiction to Carmex), his influence in
musical appreciation (our unofficial class song was Dreams by Fleetwood Mac),
and the multitude assignments he would give us (75 in one six weeks!?!). To
me, though, he was more than that. He was hands down the person who directed my
education and eventual certification to be a high school English
teacher.

I had Mr. Matchette for all four years of high school. I
took Latin I- IV, as well as honors English IV. Through taking his classes, I learned that organization
would help me in the end by making sure my work was turned in. I also wondered how I ever made an A, since it was pretty much impossible to turn in all the assignments he gave. I have since learned how that worked (#tradesecret-- teachers know). As a teacher,
I truly appreciate the intellectual banter he would have with students. My own
students should be grateful that I had this experience in school, because it
gave me a great example as to how I should interact with students.

I owe my vocabulary to this man, especially the ability to
pick out the Latin root of almost all words in multiple Latin-based languages. Without all those years
of translating The Aeneid from Latin to English, then English to Latin, I don’t
think I would have been able to stumble my way through college Spanish, and I
certainly wouldn’t have been able to translate half of the French I was faced
with on my trip to Paris last November.

He encouraged my writing by telling me as a ninth grader
that I could go to college right then and succeed in writing just as well as
any college freshman. That was a huge boost— I wanted to go to college, but none
of my teachers or counselors had ever said that they thought I should go or that I would succeed. This is so, so important for children to have this encouragement. If I hadn't had it, I'm not 100% sure I would have gone to college or have reached my current accomplishments.

I am, in part, the person I am today because I was graced
with the privilege of having Mr. Matchette in my life. I hope that I’ve had even
a little bit of influence on my own students that this man had on me. I wish
that I could have made it to his visitation. It was held last night at the same
time as I was representing my publishing company, Sleeping Panther Press, at a
book lecture and signing by one of my authors at The Wild Detectives in Dallas. I think he would be
forgiving of that, though. He would be proud of how far I’ve come as an
educator, a writer, a publisher, and an intellectual.